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Lady Gaga Apologizes for Canceled Show in Indonesia

By Dave Itzkoff May 28, 2012 9:30 amMay 28, 2012 9:30 am

Lady Gaga apologized over the weekend to her fans in Indonesia after a sold-out concert she planned to perform in Jakarta was canceled amid threats of protests and violence from Islamic hard-liners, The Associated Press reported.

The concert, which was scheduled to be held this coming Sunday at Jakarta’s 52,000-seat Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, had elicited the ire of fundamentalist Muslim groups including the Islamic Defenders Front, which said that Indonesian youth would be corrupted by Lady Gaga’s costumes and dance moves. Some who objected to the performance said they planned to protest the singer’s arrival at the airport while others said they had bought tickets to the concert so they could stir up trouble inside the stadium. Indonesia, the fourth-most populous country in the world, has more Muslims than any other nation.

Lady Gaga had previously alerted her Twitter followers that the problems facing the concert were twofold: “Indonesian authorities demand I censor the show & religious extremist separately, are threatening violence.” But on Sunday she wrote that the show had been canceled entirely.

“I will try to put together something special for you,” Lady Gaga wrote on Twitter. “My love for Indonesia has only grown.”

The Indonesian police said they would not issue permits for the concert because of security concerns, but some prospective concertgoers accused the authorities of caving into threats from a religious minority group.

“This only shows to the world how weak security forces are in this country, how police are afraid of a bunch of hard-liners,” Johnny Purba, a 25-year-old fan, told The A.P. “Gaga’s two-hour show will not hurt Indonesian Muslims. For God’s sake, she is not a terrorist!”